Defenders Prelude  Strange Tales
by Ed Ainsworth
Summary: The prelude to the gathering of the Defenders


"Bruce."

Strange stood on the street corner, adjusting his decorated tie and removing the fedora from his head. The cool, blue light shone downwards, down-casting his features with long, drawn shadows; his dark blue trimmed suit was highlighted only by the tie that matched the trim from the Cloak of Levitation. To his left, Namor was wearing a black suit with a turtle neck shirt and, to his right, the Silver Surfer stood wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts and sandals; around his neck a ring of beads that contrasted tightly against his silver skin.

"You look ridiculous." Banner said, pointing at the Surfer.

"He's faring better than you, Banner." Namor uncrossed his arms and took a few steps towards him.

Strange dropped a hand to prevent his approach, which was met with a growl from Namor and a look down the length of his nose.

"You presume much, Strange."

"You always make so much noise, Namor," Strange said, making it clear he was the leader and that he was going to talk.

"The Defenders are reforming, Bruce."

"What's the threat this time then, Strange? Nameless Ones attacking? Sentient Telephone's?"

Namor's brows narrowed and he growled. This time it was the Surfer who put his hand on the Sea Kings shoulder. The Surfer and Namor were always closer to each other than Strange and Banner had been; something about their natures worked well with each other, the Surfer's calm quelling Namor's rage.

Strange smiled and clapped a hand on Banners shoulder. He twisted the Doctor around towards the portal he opened with a simple hand gesture. "No, Bruce. We're starting to fix each other."

Wong brought the Doctor a cup of tea, placing a tray down on the small table beside Banner. As Strange sipped his cup, the Surfer took a smaller cup of Expresso and Namor simply downed a glass of water.

"Just get on with it." The King of Atlantis was well known for his impatience and standing around waiting for the others to sip their drinks gently was annoying him.

"Bruce, we want to help you and, upon careful deliberation, Norrin, Namor and I have come up with a solution."

"Oh thank God, for a moment there I thought we were veering away from predictability," Bruce scoffed and leaned back in the chair. At some point they were either going to beat him, shoot him into space, or trick him into fighting a demon.

"Pfft. I knew he wouldn't be appreciative of this, Strange. I'm going back to Atlantis." Namor turned on his heels and headed for the doors, which slammed close with a wave of Strange's hand.

"Wait." Strange finished his tea, whilst Norrin could feel the plumes of anger radiating off Namor. Strange then got to his feet slowly and walked over to Bruce.

"All these years you've looked for cures inside yourself, outside yourself and in others. The one place you didn't look is acceptance, Bruce. That's all you have to do."

"All I have to do? What the Hell are you talking about, Strange? Why are we all even gathered here anyway, to tell me to accept the Hulk? That's not really the reason for the Defenders to gather, is it?"

Namor shook his head and sat down heavily in a chair, looking out the window and away from Bruce. The Scientist annoyed him with his sarcasm, an inability to admit when he was wrong, arrogance…all those things Namor hated in others, but within himself they were parts of his character, parts of himself. Namor was all those things and more because he had to be. There was no call for a weak and compassionate King.

Bruce got up and followed Strange out of the room, leaving Namor and the Surfer alone. Norrin smiled at Namor, who furrowed his brow and huffed. "Idiots," he said as they waited.

"The reason for the Defenders, Bruce, this time around is no looming threat. There's no destruction of the world that comes from giant monsters or insane sorcerers this time, Bruce."

"What then, Strange?" Bruce picked up a small object from one of the shelves, which was quickly taken from his hands by the Doctor and returned to his place.

"The Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, even the Power Pack…they're all a family and friends and…" Strange trailed off a little, looking at Bruce with a pleading weakness the Scientist had never seen before in Strange.

"You're Lonely?" Bruce asked, shocked by the revelation. "Dr Stephen Strange, Lord High Muckity Muck of Magics is lonely, so he called together HIS super team that used to defend the world between beating each other up because he doesn't have any friends?"

"Bruce, it's not quite..."

"You Stupid Bastard!" Bruce clapped his hands together and shook his head. "Always on your terms, isn't it?" He shoved Strange in the chest and took a few steps away from him, running his hands through his hair. "You're some godamned mysterious guy, aren't you, Strange? Floating around on magicial stilts and looking down at the rest of us, and now you call us all together on a whim because you don't have any friends?"

There was a long pause as Strange stared at the ground before finally looking up at Bruce and removing his hands from his pockets. "None of us have any friends, Bruce. We've only got each other." He extended his hand to the scientist, who took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling.

"Is Mephisto going to pop up if I take your hand?"

"No, but if it makes you feel better, it's an alien invasion that brought the group together."

"It doesn't."

"That's good, because that was a lie."

* * *

"Why did you come, Namor?" the Surfer asked, standing over the sea king and unbuttoning the Hawaiian shirt to reveal his silver body.

"What do you mean, Norrin?" Namor looked up.

"You're the King of Atlantis, you have everything you want there, Namor. Why come back to the surface world to be part of this? Strange told me why he wanted me to come here, but you...I would have thought you would have declined. You're brash, confrontational and arrogant."

As Strange walked through the door with Bruce, the Surfer was propelled through the wall by Namor's fist, with the fish king hurtling through the wall after him only to get shot back through the hastily made opening with an energy burst released from the Surfer's open palm.

"I AM KING OF ATLANTIS! THEY'RE BELOVED SOVERGIN! I NEED NO REASON TO BE ABOVE THE WAVES ANYMORE THAN YOU NEED TO BE TRAVELLING THE STARS, SURFER. IMPERIOUS REX!" The fuming king rose to his feet as the Surfer pulled himself from the hole with an apologetic roll of his shoulders.

"Namor." Strange pointed towards him, but the king simply bore his chest at the man and turned his back.

"...Go to your Hell, Strange." Namor threw the door open and stormed out of the Sanctum. Strange cast a disapproving look at Norrin and rubbed his forehead gently. Bruce smiled softly and sat down heavily, picking up a glass of root beer that Wong had supplied earlier.

"Work on those people skills, Norrin." Bruce put his feet up on the table and beamed a huge smile at Strange.

"Acceptance, indeed." Strange muttered under his breath.

* * *

"Namor." Bruce rubbed the back of his head as he walked out onto the street after the Sea King, a T-Shirt clung to his malnourished body and jeans hung from his skinny legs.

"What do you want, Surface Dweller?"

"We want to help you." Strange and Norrin came out behind Bruce and they all stood together, almost echoing the scene where they met Banner earlier.

"Help me? You can't even help yourselves?"

"That's the problem, Namor. We can't. That's the real reason for the Defenders," Strange started. He looked at the ground as Banner and Norrin watched. "We're all missing something, Namor. We want to help you find Marrina. Bruce, we want to help you control the Hulk, Norrin, we want to give you a place to live and love, and I hope, that you want to help me...get over Clea. Will you help me and, more importantly, each other?"

"Strange...you would help me find my wife?"

"We all would," replied the Surfer.

The quartet were interrupted by explosions from a distance, getting increasingly closer as the form of someone familiar to them shot through the air, red cape splayed out behind him as the jet pack underneath it propelled him forwards.

"Guys!" he yelled, his jet pack cutting out and allowing the battered and torn hero to land awkwardly on the balls of his feet and fall onto his front. On his hands and knees he looked up at the other Defenders and pulled his mask off, revealing his face, full of hope despite the fact it was bloodied and swollen.

"I'm so glad you're back together..." he said before passing out face first into the pavement below. Strange rushed over to him, kneeling down and feeling his pulse, before pushing him into the recovery position.

"We're not back together," Banner replied quickly, met with a glare from Norrin

Banners comment was met with a glow of light that blinded him, as well as the others. Only Norrin stood unaffected; he'd seen the glare of suns up close and this was nothing. She touched down and lifted her hand up, the crystal now embedded in her flesh. The blue full-face mask gave none of her emotions away as she simply pointed towards the four of them.

"Move out the way or find yourself annihilated." 


End file.
